Back to the Future II - ish

So I'm afraid I didn't do many making of photographs of this, just this blurry one:

The biggest different technique I used here was interfacing. I added it to some fabric which was the perfect colour for the denim but was the wrong weight and also very stretchy which is a pain to work with. I also added it to the stretchy face fabric to make my life easier. I'd done a little bit of this for Doc but this time I used it in a big way on the face. It was so great. Only slight problem was forgetting the stretchy fabric might need a cooler iron and ruining some bits by slightly melting them. Oops.

So the main pics I have are some reference pics.

His period outfits are sometimes a bit varied but the most familiar costume is the jeans and blue check shirt with a red bodywarmer/windcheater.



I have to warn you I am not feeling patient so although I made sure I did the right shoes - this photo was so useful for that:



I'm afraid I just couldn't be bothered to do braces this time as in this screen shot



I did give him the red under t shirt though.

I'm taking a rest before Clara although technically I don't have a choice, the nearest I have to a pale peach colour is just not similar enough to Caucasian flesh-tones being more of a bluey pink.

I'll be posting it off soon!

Doc Emmett Brown

This plushie will eventually be part of a trio but for now he's flying solo. I mentioned earlier why I chose this specific outfit so the next stage was basically some cloth choices.

He isn't a complex design in essentials, with no fiddly parts to his costume.

I had intended to do the hair with cloth but it came out a bit pressed against his head so I decided I'd use some wool a bit like Loki.

Although I'm not unhappy with Loki's hair, it didn't entirely go the way I'd like it to look, but I feel it works particularly well here. The sunnies are card with cooking foil on them and I embroidered on the watches on both wrists. The jacket material was stretchy which drove me a little crazy but worked out fine.

So here he is finished!!

Not bad compared to the original eh?

G[r]eek Alphabet - so long and thanks for all the fish

Amazingly, astoundingly, I am done. The main sewing started in August and has gone on sporadically ever since. I finished the fronts a little while ago but then had to make all the backs and the base. Thankfully my Mum came to the rescue with the hanging and making a pole for it to hang from and machine sewing on the velcro.

But the backs were a little bit of a chore. So in order to get them done I forbade myself from doing much more on the final extra letters until I'd done the backs. The backs after a while were sort of meditative but the sewing through the velcro never really got fun. It's tough stuff, not as tough as fake or real leather but pretty tough all the same. I've had other things to do but I basically entered the home stretch recently and finally in the last week or so I started on the absolute last letter. I finished sewing the back to the front today on that letter and did some extra finishing touches, which I don't want to talk about (they're not all that exciting anyway).

So here it is hanging on the wall of my flat.

All that remains now is to give it to its intended recipient. He's a bit older than I planned - about 5ish months old and he won't be reading for a while but I am really looking forward to giving it to his Mum and Dad for him to enjoy.

Thank you all for your positive comments and thoughts along the way. I'm not sure what big project I'll do again but I'll be sure to let you know. In the mean time there are some plushies. I'm just about to write up a separate post about Doc Emmett Brown from Back to the Future which I finished at the end of January.

Toys toys toys

Well, out of nowhere, I appear to have a list of plushie commissions so I thought I'd write a note about it to keep myself on track.

I've been asked for one very recently due end of January, so it has bumped some non time sensitive ones down the list. Apologies to those whose requests they were.

1. Doc Emmett Brown (Back to the Future films) (due end of Jan)
2. Hermione Grangers (Harry Potter books and films) (deadline tba)
3. Edward Cullen - take 2 (Twilight books and films) (deadline tba)
4. Clara Clayton (Back to the Future films) (deadline tba)
5. Marty McFly (Back to the Future films) (deadline tba)

Doc Emmett Brown

Starting with Doc, I've got the fabrics chosen and cut out and it shouldn't be a huge technical challenge. I had some thoughts about his outfit. He wears several very iconic outfits throughout the films.

The lab coat is a classic but not very exciting or very visually easily recognisable as Doc on a simpliefied plushie. It could come out, much like some of the buyable costumes looking like a cross between ANY mad scientist and a spoof of Einstein.



The radiation suit is also a classic but not very interesting once it's been simplified into a plushie.



He's also worn a rather uninteresting Western style outfit.

So in the end I went with the rather more colourful yellow suit with a red shirt combo.



Sadly I don't have anything patterned for that fabulously insane red shirt so it will be just textured red, but I love that he's also wearing green boots with red laces with this combination. So that should be a loooooot of fun.

Technically this is a relatively simple adaptation of the classic pattern so hopefully it should be quick.

The only unfortunate part is it does mean it will slow down completing my alphabet. I'm now up to letter T, which leaves six main letters to do, plus the three extras. Although I haven't completed the fronts of two of the extras yet.

Wish me luck. It should be definitely a blast from the past!

I STILL aten't dead - but Loki is done and dusted!

I stayed up all night to get Loki....or rather I dropped everything to finish Loki in time for Christmas as he's a present from one friend to another.

Loki's costume as I mentioned between the Thor films and Avengers and variants within is a complex costume. I am endlessly grateful to a friend of mine who having cosplayed a Loki had lots of reference pics to help me, and as another friend had made the costume I loved that I was using Loki cosplay offcuts to make a Loki plushie.

I essentially decided to go with a version of his golden-y armour to add a bit of extra bright to the other dull colour palate of dark green and blacks.



I had to plan how I was going to do it layer by layer as you can see from the drawings


I had a bit of time dithering about fabrics because although I wanted to use some of my fake black leather stash I just didn't fancy sewing too much fake leather. In the end I decided this Loki would not have leather boots as I just couldn't face an almost entirely leather base body.


Once I started making the basic body it was fiddly with several different fabrics coming together. I am always adapting the pattern but I'm also very forgetful of things that don't work.
As you can see here I forgot quite how to get the hair to come out above his face properly as I had been distracted by the slicked back seal like quality of Loki's hair in the movies.
Loki plushie came out looking bald not slicked back.

This then left me with essentially making a cap of hair to fit over the top and sew down to add to his hair.

That being more or less sorted I headed on to making the coat. I still wasn't entirely happy with the hair though. Although I always regret it while I'm using it I really wanted to make the zip like edge of Loki's coat using my metallic gold thread and I like to think it came out pretty darned well.

That being said the coat was made of a thicker fake leather than the basic body's tunic meaning it was really really annoying to sew.

I also carefully lined the coat only to remember he has 3 tails and had to unpick the side stitching and cut 2 v's in the back to make the three tails. Sadly after all that effort I didn't photograph that particular detail.

I then made the cloak. Before I moved on to make the helmet and staff I started to dither about the hair and consulted friends about possibly adding some thin wool so he had those sort of rats tails under his helmet. With at least one friend's affirmative I went ahead. As I sewed each one down individually it has come out looking a bit like braids but I don't mind it much.


The final details were the helmet and staff. I really wanted to make the pointy back shape of the helmet

But once I'd made the helmet, sewing a ridge for the pointy-ness just didn't work. Then I went on to the staff.

I originally planned to make it with just a few bits of pipe cleaner in yellow and grey and some blue cloth. But it didn't look all that great. I can't find any photos of it when it looked like that.

So I kept pipe cleaners for the basic staff, but used some felt sewn to a couple of layers of paper for the knife blades and scammed some blue beads off a friend for the jewelly thingy. With that it went off in good time for Christmas present gifting and both the person who had requested it and the recipient appear to like him very well.

But what about the ALPHABET?

What? An alphabet you say? No idea what you're talking about. OK OK I'm kidding. I'm still working on it after my brief hiatus but I'm at a dull stage. I'm making all the backs. There's not much to see as such.... I'm up to letter R and they're looking spiffy.

Here's a pic of it hung up at my parents' house when I'd got as far as O.

Sewing through the tough plastic-ky velcro strips has necessitated some new tools - rubber thimbles. They don't stop needle pricks completely but they do allow gripping and give some good protection, plus they're slightly warming! They look a bit weird though. I am however glad for the tip from a friend who suggested them.

G[r]eek Alphabet - Z is for Zaphod Beeblebrox

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking poetryghost you're a LIBRARIAN, shouldn't that be B is for Beeblebrox, Zaphod. Actually you aren't cos only librarians think these kind of thoughts but never mind.

I'm not 100% well and to cheer myself up at being not able to go to dance class I thought I'd catch you up on letter Z.

Zaphod is a fun character - fond of clashing outfits but also a bit suave. I decided I would make the colours as extreme as possible but preferably not eyewateringly painful to look at.

I started with the peach background and then added green and purple, notoriously bad colours to wear together. To make it bearable I toned down the green and the purple was darker anyway. I dithered over the letter colour for a while but ended up with dark greenish to contrast everything else going on and to avoid adding more colours to the palette.

I did worry initially about the skin being a beige colour and fading into the peach background but I figured if I gave him brown hair on his heads then that would help to outline his heads

So then I wanted a way to link the two halves of his shirt so that it didn't look like two guys hugging each other. So I created a zig zag across the edges using embroidery.

At this point the glass for his pan galatic gargle blaster was too dark on the dark of the green so I outlined it in white.

I realised that the pale green was also fading into the background too much, so I decided that having outlined one green sleeve in purple I could outline the whole of the green side in purple as well. I also outlined all the flesh in a very thin black line.

So there we are Zaphod Beeblebrox is complete!

Final news before bed - letter A now has a completed back and is completely sewn up! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

I aten't dead

Alphabet News

Z is for what exactly?

I know what you're thinking, where the frak is the letter Z for Zaphod Beeblebrox and well, you'd be right I haven't posted it yet. Stuff happened and things, things also happened. I reassure you dear reader, I have completed Z. In fact I've completed another of the extra letters. As part of being considerate and maintaining my friend's privacy over her child, I have decided I won't be posting any of those letters up. Although it is doubtful anyone could guess their name and surname just from seeing 3 extra letters I don't wish to run that risk.

Overall project progress

Further news - I've finally got all the velcro I need for the sticking up, and have started working on the attachment. The fuzzy half of the velcro is pinned in place on the backing cloth and my lovely Mum has attached a pole to the top.

I've even started sewing on the first back of a letter. I decided I would die of boredom if I made all the backs at once and then sewed them all on. So I will be making one back at a time and then sewing it on one at a time. This means that the letter A is almost completely done, velcro and all!!!! Wooo!

New plushie on the horizon

So someone asked me to make a new plushie, and not any old plushie........it's....erm Loki from Thor and Avengers movie.

I'm simultaneously very yay and a bit argh! Panic!

Today I thought I'd start working out what needs to be made and in what colours, and as always I was bemused by costume variants both within movies and between movies.

Clearly he will have a helmet. With horns. Obviously.
But then there's

• cape/no cape variants
• armour/no armour
• two different staves
  and
• various shoulder pad combinations.

 Obviously my plushie will not be a perfect copy of any of these outfits. I'm not made of magic people!

Currently my plan is :

• Basic body of plushie will have the tunic that sort of has a v cutout on the front
• Coat with no sleeves over the top lined with green mid calf length
• Cape attached to the coat with no sleeves in green

I can't work out if I will be putting the goldy armour on the coat or not but if I don't it will be quite dark. That's partly why I'm doing the cape. He wears a lot of black.

Anyhoo I will be asking my lovely friends who made a full scale femme version of the costume to help out and advise!

Links for reference

Loki cosplay tumblr
Loki cosplay photobucket picture refs